I'll try to be succinct here, as given the emotions brought about by recent national events, it's hard to concentrate on basketball. Nevertheless, a situation happened the other day which I feel I must, I MUST write about. Unfortunately it's one of those situations which cause a hundred thoughts to run in your head, and that hostage drama didn't help, so it took me awhile to get to it. Anyway, here is my attempt:

NU beat UP the other week, with the Bulldogs handing over to the Maroons their 10th consecutive loss to 0 wins in the UAAP. It was the previous game to the ADMU-DLSU 2nd round matchup but I watched with interest just the same, knowing how UP is bleeding for a win and besides it was getting interesting at the end.

With NU ahead by a point with 2 seconds remaining, NU's Jewel Ponferada was shooting FTs. He scored the first and intentionally missed the second. Now here's the amazing and sickening, despicable, horrible, stunning part: Coach Fernandez was instructing his players to intentionally cause successive lane violations in order to 'force' Ponferada to sink his 2nd freethrow, a ploy to neutralize the missed freethrows. After an unbelievable 5 intentional lane violations, and when it looked like UP would keep at it ad infinitum, the refs didn't call the last violation. Ponferada missed, UP lost time on the inbound, NU won the game, Fernandez went ape-shit and to add to the hilarity and as if he didn't embarrass himself enough, UP protested the game.

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..how an article re basketball in a country that calls basketball its most popular sport can miss-spell 'alley oop'.

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By Amare no less:

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If you are a Pinoy and loves to play and watch Football, then by golly do not waste any time and join the Sony Ericsson FIFA World Cup 2010 Digital Campaign immediately.

And considering the fact there aren't a hell of a lot of footballers in this country, if you are one then your chances are significantly higher than if you lived in say, Singapore, Malaysia, India, HK.. oh let's just go ahead and say it: anywhere else.

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I imagine a conversation between fans at the game TnT walked out of would've gone like this:

Fan 1: Pare oemgee! Nagwalk-out ang TnT!
Fan 2: Oo nga pre!
(Crowd hoots and gasps in collective silence as they watch the proceedings.)
Fan 1: Wow! (sits down)
Fan 2: Oo nga.
Fan 1: O pano, uwi na tayo.
Fan 2: Oo nga. Malayo pa ang (insert far away place here).

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Used to be I really liked this guy. He had an awesome blog (and I like players who blog, and promote the heck out of them), and he came over 2 years ago and when he left, spread some love about how unexpectedly great the reception was, and encouraged others to come over.

Now, I spent the last twenty minutes smiling as I made this:

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Best first.

That's Steve Nash going for a spectacular 21 point 20 assist game against the 76ers, taking what is considered to be a relatively undermanned Phoenix Suns to an impressive 7-1 record.

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Ok sorry again for the late post. I can name a few excuses but let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

As of my last posting, there have been recent developments directly as a result of the PBA's decision to declare Smart Gilas' games as no - bearing, which we'll get into later. For the moment, let's analyze the PBA Press Release I posted 5 days ago, starting with:

Jong Uichico's “It is unfortunate that the PBA teams play the National Team always looking to win.”

I am 100% convinced that what Jong Uichico wanted to say didn't come out the way he said it. In other words, I think what he really meant was: "It is unfortunate that the PBA teams play the National Team always looking to win [at any cost, including using rough play]. That's GOT to be what he really meant to say, right? I mean, the alternative, which is to read what he said face - value, means that he thinks PBA teams should play to lose when up against Smart-Gilas, which is stupid, and Jong Uichico is not stupid, right?

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Please find forthwith the latest news re Smart Gilas and the PBA from the PBA Sports Desk received this afternoon:

Philippine Basketball Association commissioner Sonny Barrios wrote the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas yesterday regarding the participation of the Smart Gilas National Team in the ongoing 2009-10 KFC-PBA Philippine Cup.

Barrios said the Board directed him to choose only between two options: 1) for Smart Gilas games to have no bearing even on PBA teams, and 2) for Smart Gilas not to play CJ Giles in any of its remaining games that will have a bearing on the PBA teams.

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Fresh from the PBA Mailing List:

The Philippine Basketball Association yesterday handed down its severest penalty to date, suspending veteran Burger King guard Wynne Arboleda without pay for the rest of the 2009-10 Season.

Arboleda, who was earlier called for his second flagrant foul in the game, went after a heckler at courtside during the Whoppers’ game against Smart-Gilas at the Araneta Coliseum last Friday, landing a kick and some punches before being restrained by cooler heads.

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I absolutely have no idea how things transpired so badly the other night, but in the interest of keeping a record, here's (belatedly) what I got. Yes, I'm referring to Wynne Arboleda's going UFC on a fan in the middle of a game between Smart Gilas and Burger King, and not the game itself. Anyway, here's the video:

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Ok let's start off with what you need to know.

First off, Rebound Magazine September / October Issue #2 should be available at National Bookstore now. This lays to rest questions re where and where to buy it when I wrote about it the first time it came out.

Second, it's the last issue of the year, with a 3rd issue, I am assured, in the works for next. As such, congratulations are in order to the publisher, editors and writers behind it because obviously we wouldn't even be talking about a 3rd issue if the 1st one wasn't a hit.

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According to a letter issued by a CHED OIC Director, former ADMU player Jobe Nkemakolam, previously the subject of yet another UAAP Men's Basketball controversy, was eligible for College and therefore cleared to play during the time he was on their roster.

To recall, a certain Atty. Levito Baligod filed a complaint with the UAAP Board, claiming that Nkemakolam was not qualified to enter College and therefore ineligible. He presented evidence ie. a CHED statement issued Sept. 3, 2009 stating that Nkemakolam “has not met the academic requirements to graduate from high school, hence, he is not qualified for admission to college.” The document was signed by a Lilian B. Enriquez, Officer-in-Charge, Director III. Reports via inboundpass and uaapsports.com.

Also contested by Baligod was Nkemakolam's graduating from Reedley International School, providing evidence stating the school has no record of his attendance for Grade 12, the equivalent of 4th Year High School.

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I'm a big Gmail / Google Reader / Gcalendar / G everything freak, so I was semi excited to find out Google's Calendar had 'Sports' categories now. Well guess what I found:

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I gotta admit I'm grasping at straws here. The UAAP Finals are still a few weeks away, and even then my team's almost nearly out the door (and deservedly so, since, well, let's admit it, they suck this year). At any rate, here's a look around what's going on, not necessarily in all of basketball, but mostly what's gotten me interested:

Rubio to stay in Spain - If you need more proof how drafts aren't all that relevant, then here it is. What was mostly considered the second coming of Pistol Pete has decided to wait out till he's 21 to play with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who owns his rights from when the NBA draft was held last June.

My opinion? Good for him. At 19 he has a world of opportunity available to him to improve even more in Europe, which is even better than a kid in the US trying to improve via competing in the College ranks. Sure the 'Wolves are gonna miss out on a crowd drawer, and they worked their ass off trying to get this deal, but you can't fault a kid for wanting to get better first and staying home. Heck, you can't even fault the kid for changing his mind because he's exactly that - a kid, and as such prone to such things.

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